27344: Hermantin(News)ns tape beating of grad student (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Wed, Jan. 25, 2006


JUVENILE VIOLENCE
Teens tape beating of grad student
Four teens were charged with assaulting a Haitian college student while 
videotaping the attack, but Philadelphia police are not calling it a hate 
crime.
By ROBERT MORAN
Knight Ridder News Service

PHILADELPHIA - Four Philadelphia teenagers have been arrested and charged with 
beating a Drexel University graduate student, a Haitian immigrant, and nearly 
killing him by shoving him into traffic -- while videotaping the attack, police 
said.

''It's a very disturbing film,'' said police Lt. John F. Walker. ``It's just 
mind-boggling.''

The 30-year-old engineering student, a Haitian immigrant, was assaulted at 1:10 
p.m. Friday as he was walking to his apartment, Walker said Monday.

The incident recalls a similar one in Fort Lauderdale on Jan 12. Three 
teenagers have been charged with murder in connection with the beatings of 
three homeless men that night. One of those beatings was captured by a video 
camera on the Fort Lauderdale campus of Florida Atlantic University as two of 
the boys beat a homeless man with baseball bats. One of the men attacked was 
killed; two others were severely injured and hospitalized for several days.

Philadelphia police said the victim now wants to leave the city and return home 
to Haiti, Walker said. ''He's very fearful of his life and of living in that 
area,'' he said.

The victim asked police not to release his name out of fear for his safety, 
said Capt. Benjamin Naish, a police spokesman. Police say they do not believe 
the attack was a hate crime.

The four teens -- one 18, two 17-year-olds, and a teen who was 16 at the time 
of the attack and turned 17 Monday -- face charges of attempted murder and 
related crimes, officials said.

RANDOM ATTACK

Walker said the teens were walking after a scheduled half-day of school when 
they taped themselves planning the random attack.

''They were talking about [how] it was an early day [from school], the weather 
was nice, and what they were going to do,'' Walker said. ``In the beginning, 
it's almost like a documentary.''

''Unfortunately, this poor student was the first person they came upon,'' 
Walker said.

One of the boys punched the graduate student in the jaw and slammed him into 
the wall of a building, Walker said. Another boy then jumped in and started to 
pummel the Drexel student.

As the blows were being landed, the teens could be heard on the tape saying 
''ooh'' and ''aah,'' Walker said.

The victim was then pushed between two parked cars and into traffic, officials 
said. The victim was not hit by any vehicles. He was treated for a dislocated 
jaw and cuts to his mouth at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.

The attack, which lasted 30 to 45 seconds, was reported to police, and patrol 
officers apprehended six or seven students within minutes, officials said.

Police seized the camera and tape, which was not being shown publicly.

The four alleged attackers are students at University City High School.

They are being expelled from school, said Vincent Thompson, a school district 
spokesman. One of the four played varsity basketball at the high school, 
Thompson said.

TEACHER `STUNNED'

Jeffrey Rosenberg, a health and physical education teacher at University City 
High and the teachers' union representative in the building, said one of those 
arrested was a student in his class.

He said he was stunned by the news.

''You meet these kids. You have a good rapport with them in classes. It just 
makes you wonder: How much do we really know them?'' he said. ``It's very 
disturbing, very upsetting.''

The student accused of striking the first blow was arrested Monday morning at 
the high school, Walker said.

The oldest, Tyrez Osborne, 18, was being held at Curran-Fromhold Correctional 
Facility, prison spokesman Robert Eskind said.

Before the beating, the teens are seen on the tape rapping and hanging out with 
two teenage girls, Walker said. The girls are being sought for questioning.

Robert Moran reports for the Philadelphia Inquirer.